Great. Do they have the luxury of choosing a time?

They do, as long as they don't take too long about it — the cultists could cross back the other way if they really tried, they'd just be facing all the same problems Blai's force is about to face, magnified wildly by the Crusade's numerical advantage.

All right. Strategy decided, he dismisses the little props representing it and they can form up and get a move on.

This battle is bloodier than the last one. The illusions help, but even with the opposing force spending half its effort on accidental (or occasionally deliberate) assaults on each other, the difficulties posed by getting the Crusade's force across the river help them to compensate well enough to take some people down before dying themselves. Casualties are particularly heavy in one of the Condemned units, where the unit commander (not, himself, part of the Condemned) completely abandons Blai's plan halfway through the battle for no obvious reason, getting himself and a third of his troops killed. (Mostly not people Blai personally sent there, though that is where they ended up putting the guy who was possibly spying on behalf of the demons.)

Still, with that one exception, losses are a bit lower than expected, well within the range of what's manageable, and when all is said and done the crusaders are across the river and the cultists are dead or captured.

Great. He wants an analysis from whoever the dead commander who just got himself and a third of his troops killed used to report to, and a shortlist of possible people who might be promoted into his shoes in case he has developed opinions on any of them in the days he's been with this army. Funeral arrangements handled? Sarenrites holding up okay with the prisoner volume? Everybody clear that today was battle spells and the Zone of Truth for anybody they need to put through one is waiting for tomorrow morning?

The guy the dead unit commander used to report to thinks that was very uncharacteristic of him, to the point that he'd assume he'd been enchanted if they hadn't done a sweep for that before the battle. He's pretty sure that's an embarrassingly short analysis so he will also attempt to come up with some other things to say (brief discussion of why he's still not ruling out the possibility of enchantment, longer discussion of what the guy's orders were and whether he could possibly have somehow thought he was following them) but that's the thrust of it.

Appointing unit commanders for the Condemned is especially complicated because in addition to all the other traits of a good unit commander there are additional constraints imposed by (on the one hand) the greater predisposition of its members to cause disciplinary problems and (on the other) the need to make sure they don't appoint someone who's predisposed to be a massive asshole to ex-criminals to a degree that makes them less effective as a unit. The shortlist include this person who had notably insightful thoughts on Mendev's corruption situation, or this person that Irabeth thinks would be a bad pick because he seems very confused about the concept of illegal orders, or this person who has an important second-cousin. There's also this person, who was sent to the Condemned about three decades ago for theft and given a pardon a decade later; he'd be a controversial pick, but he might have a good angle on the situation that the other candidates wouldn't?

Funeral arrangements are being made. The Pharasmins think they should bury them on the Mendevian side of the Wardstone barrier, they're not sure if burying them on the other side is going to run the risk of creating fiendish undead but in their opinion there's no good reason to risk it.

The Sarenrites are more-or-less managing, albeit partially by virtue of the battle having been pretty bloody on the other side and partially by virtue of having a lot of experience working in similar situations, occasionally under much tighter time constraints. (Also, they think the guy who thought he'd be good at talking cultists into repenting is well-intentioned but pretty bad at it; he's the type to think that if he just explains why being a cultist is a bad idea well enough, it'll be enough to talk them all out of it.) 

All the spellcasters are clear on spell allocations.

Blai will interview the pardoned guy! If he doesn't seem liable to work out the insightful one seems a good choice.

Makes sense to not take any chances with fiendish undead.

If the Sarenrites think they can train him up they can keep him and otherwise he should go back whence he came.

Pardoned guy is a real stickler for the rules but worse-than-ideal at adapting to situations he doesn't have rules for. He does seem decent at interacting with members of the Condemned, though, good at getting them to listen and unlikely to devolve into petty cruelty. Whether or not Blai promotes him, he has some opinions on how best to rearrange the rest of the Condemned units to cover for the gaps left by the deaths in the headless one.

The Sarenrites do not really expect to be able to train prospective-spiritual-counselor guy up.

Honestly "stickler for the rules but requires direction in weird conditions" is a great kind of guy, out of possible kinds of guy, and Blai would love to have him in this capacity and discuss how to rearrange the organization to cope with the casualties.

Prospective-counselor returns to his previous position.

Staffing changes are duly handled. 

Most of the army is camping on the Worldwound side of the barrier tonight; there's space for a few units on the Mendevian side, but not the whole force.

A little over an hour after dawn, Thall asks to speak with him.

Certainly. "What is it?"

"I had another dream last night. I heard the same voice as the dreams warning about the Wardstone, and she said the demons captured her and are holding her in the Drezen dungeons until they execute her. —She'll probably be dead by the time we get there, but I figured you should know."

"...I don't think we can accelerate the march in light of this information but if you have any other details relevant to casing the dungeons we can use them, it would have to be done anyway."

The dream was pretty light on that sort of detail but he does have a little bit (there's a dretch guard with a key to one of the other parts of the citadel! the demons in Drezen have been even more disorganized than usual! he's pretty sure there's a room with a layout like so!)

"—And I think she might be a former cultist, she was talking like she had some kind of history? But even if she used to be a cultist she still tried to save Kenabres."

"Assuming the voice match is not spoofed, but it would be - expensive and not particularly reliable as a scheme."

Nod. "I really don't think it was fake. But obviously it's a good idea to be careful, there'll be guards there either way."

"Thank you for letting me know. Is there anything else?"

Headshake. "I'll let you know if I get any more messages from my dreams."

Payday is that day, the first of Rova. The Queen did everything in her power to make sure the necessary funds would be timely and more-than-sufficient, even at the risk of the funds they'll need for future months, with the result that the amount of money that actually makes it into the Crusade's hands is adequate to cover payroll and their other basic expenses, albeit somewhat less than Her Majesty attempted to send to them.

Praise Iomedae! Who knew she could work such miracles!

... what are his options for tracking down the missing amount.

Depends on where he thinks it went! If he thinks someone here managed to get to it ahead of him, he could try putting people under Truthtellings, though if he wants any sort of volume he'll need to wait until tomorrow when he can put them through a Zone. If he's looking for missing funds at the other forts along the river, or Nerosyan, he could... write a strongly worded letter? Wait until he's taken Drezen and attempt to visit in person, not that that guarantees any sort of cooperativeness? Sell supplies he doesn't need on the black market, for certain values of 'track down the missing amount'? Skim some funding from the forts to the north of him, for other values of 'track down the missing amount'?

(His advisors, if he consults them, seem confused about the idea that the missing funds would be alarming. He has the money he needs to support the army, wasn't that what he wanted?)

Yes but he does not have slack and someone is stealing and will be emboldened and enriched by unmitigated success at that. He wants an account of how the money was withdrawn from wherever it was, and what hands it passed through on its way, and then he is going to write EVERYBODY IN THAT CHAIN a question about how much it was when they had it and how they verified this and whether they have any information that might lead to the better treatment of the soldiery of Mendev, some of whom would certainly merit bonuses if the full amount had reached him, that would be this large number that the Queen authorized for the purpose, and he's pretty sure on account of how she's a paladin that she is not saying one number and handing over another by her own choice.